GazePlotter
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SMI BeGaze upload

GazePlotter supports the upload of data from the SMI BeGaze eye-tracking software, which is currently unfortunately no longer supported. Some researchers still use this software, and we want to support them in visualizing their data.

From SMI BeGaze, you can visualize eye-tracking AOI data with all timeline types (absolute, relative, and ordinal). You can also upload dynamic AOI visibility information as event data.

Export & upload basic data

No overlaying AOIs

If you don’t have multiple AOI hits in the same fixation (caused by AOI overlay), the .csv file can be exported from the SMI BeGaze software by selecting

  1. Export
  2. Metrics Export
  3. Event Statistics
  4. Single

In this tab, check the following metrics for export:

Column GroupColumn Name
Presentation InformationStimulus
Participant InformationParticipant
Participant Properties
*if participant attributes needed for analysis
General InformationCategory
AOI InformationAOI Name
Event DetailsEvent Start Trial Time [ms]
Event End Trial Time [ms]

Make sure that columns are separated by a tabulator (tab) and decimal separator is a point (.).

Then click Export to export the data.

The exported .csv file can be then simply uploaded to the workspace by clicking the Upload data button (see Workspace & Setup overview) and selecting this file for upload.

Data with overlaying AOIs

If you have multiple AOI hits in the same fixation (caused by AOI overlay), firstly export data as in the previous section.

Then, in the SMI BeGaze software, select:

  1. Export
  2. Metrics Export
  3. AOI Statistics
  4. Single
Column GroupColumn Name
Presentation InformationStimulus
Participant InformationParticipant
Participant Properties
*if participant attributes needed for analysis
General InformationCategory
AOI InformationAOI Name
Event DetailsEvent Start Trial Time [ms]
Event End Trial Time [ms]

Make sure that columns are separated by a comma (,) and decimal separator is a point (.).

Then click Export to export the data.

After that, click the Upload data button (see Workspace & Setup overview) and select both the first exported .csv file and the second one for starting the upload and visualization.

Event data

To include dynamic AOI visibility as event data in your scarf plots:

  1. In SMI BeGaze, open AOI Editor.
  2. Click Save to export the AOI visibility data as an .xml file.
  3. When uploading to GazePlotter, select both the eye-tracking .csv file(s) and the exported .xml file(s) together in the file picker.

GazePlotter automatically detects the .xml files as event files. After the eye-tracking data is parsed, the Map Event Files modal appears to assign each event file to a stimulus and participant. See Event Data for full details.

Sample data

You can download the sample data, including other formats, from OSF Sample Data Storage.